Men Whose Eyes Have Seen the King # 52

The Throne - The Living Ones and the Wheels (continued)

Suffering with the Glory of God in View (continued)

Take one fragment only - Lazarus. "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God" (John 11:4). Strange event of providence; strange ways of God, causing deep sorrow, distress, perplexity. It is a distressing thing for those concerned, but quite deliberate on the part of the Lord Jesus. His attitude and His handling, His tarrying when He received the news (verse 6), were quite deliberate. He has it all in hand, and He says: "It is for the glory of God, that the Son of God should be glorified thereby." The end of this strange thing, this painful thing in human life, is the glory of God! Would that you and I could always look at our sufferings and our sorrows like that! Every time when some perplexing, bewildering, heart-breaking thing comes into our lives, if only we could say and believe and stand to it - "God is going to get some glory out of this! There is some glory somewhere bound up with this!" He is working to His end in all things. Paul says: "God works in all things good to them that love Him and are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28) - and by that word "good" he means glory - glory to God.

We see, then, that there is an energy of God, of the Throne, toward glory, and to glory through holiness.

Perfect Intelligence of the Throne

Another feature of the wheels was that they were "full of eyes round about" (1:18; 10:12). Surely this means that the Throne is operating with perfect intelligence, with complete knowledge of everything; an utter apprehension and grasp of all the elements, of all the features, of everything that has to be dealt with. Perfect vision; perfect knowledge: that is how the Throne of Holiness works.

That is a solemn message, as well as perhaps an encouraging one. The fact is that that One on the Throne, whose "eyes are as a flame of fire" (Revelation 1:14), sees right through, knows all the hidden motives, and acts accordingly. It is not what we see, and not what we are willing to see, but what He sees. The eyes of His glory look us right through; they know all our self-deceptions, and all our deceivings of one another. They know us perfectly, and the Lord is acting with us according to that knowledge, and we are not going to get away with it. If the Lord takes in hand to deal with us in a form of judgment; if He really does take action in regard to us, it is because He has seen or is seeing something; something that is injurious to us; something that is limiting or hindering the glory in us, personally or individually, or in our companies. He has seen something that is against the glory, and so with energy He takes in hand, and He will judge it. He will go to great lengths in order to get that eliminated and put it right, in order that the glory may come in, and make way for new life, and that we may go on anew in a fresh phase in His purpose.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 53)